Posts Tagged ‘history’

You may recall the post that I did last year with this beautiful old house that is a couple of miles from where I live. For almost 30 years I have driven past it and wanted to go in and see what it was like inside, but I didn’t want to trespass and I wasn’t sure what kind of critters may have taken up residence. Last weekend as I was driving past and noticed that there where three vehicles there so I quickly swerved to the side of the road and took the opportunity to check it out.

It turns out that it was the owner and a contractor discussing the possibility of restoring the house. There has been so much vandalism and weather damage that it will be a huge undertaking.

People have kicked in many of the doors and stolen mantles from the fireplaces. Such a shame. It is easy still to see the former charm of the house.

The woman was telling the story of how her aunt and uncle had lived there and her fond memories of the place.

A flood from the creek across the road had buckled some of the floors into waves.

The fireplace in the kitchen was huge! She carefully climbed a couple of steps of the rotting back stairway and said that her uncle had had a workshop up there until he moved it to a shed in the back.

The layers of old linoleum and wallpaper showed the changing styles of its history.

The back porch reminded her of when the chickens would try to roost on the rafters and her aunt would shoo them down with a broom and take them to the chicken house.

I will be anxiously watching to see if she decides that it is worth saving. For now I will save what is left with my photos.

We pick up our story from the previous post by introducing you to Mrs. Nora Hilsendegen, wife of Deputy Roy Hilsendegen, patiently waiting and praying for her brave husband. Neighbors come running with the news that Roy has been shot in a gun battle. Her heart sinks, but she has faith. She lifts the hem of her skirt and runs to the doctor’s house and to her husband’s side. It is only a shoulder wound, the bullet exited through the back. He is a little weak from lost blood, but with a little cleaning and stitching he will be just fine. They are renewed in their resolve to cherish every moment together.

Ahhh…yes…it’s a sappy story. I never said I was a writer. I just make things.

On one of my treasure hunting forays, I stopped at a shop that had attracted my attention for a couple of years, but I was always in such a hurry when I passed it. This day, I had time to spare so I gave into my curiosity and pulled in. At first, I perused the whole shop and didn’t really find anything promising. Then the owner asked me what I was looking for. I replied that I wanted small, rusty, aged things that most people would overlook. He showed me a tray of objects and said that he had found them over the years while he was metal detecting. Bingo! I dug through the objects for about half an hour and randomly asked him about the more interesting finds. One of them was this curious piece of metal with a name and a date. He said that he had found it in a creek next to a cave where a gun battle had taken place between some criminals who were hiding out in the cave and the sheriff and his deputies. He assumed that this had belonged to one of them.

I had kept this piece in my studio for about a year, wondering what to do with it. A couple of weeks ago I had bought a couple of very vintage jewel tintypes. One was a woman (you will see her in the next post) and one was a man. I was pondering how to use the man’s image. While lying in bed a couple of nights ago, it came to me! He was the deputy who lost his badge in the gun battle. The story was completing itself. Add a couple of bullets, a key for handcuffs, and a tiny gun and the story comes together.

So…meet Deputy Hilsendegen, wounded in the line of duty, but not mortally. The criminals were brought to justice and he was taken home, (after being patched up by the town doctor) to his loving wife…hmmm…the other photo in the next post.

What is it about rust and patina that fascinates me? I was passing by a “junk” shop that I had passed many times and for once, I wasn’t in a big hurry, so I stopped in. After I had toured the premises and had not seen anything of particular interest, I started a conversation with the proprietor and asked him if he had any old rusty bits, like keys, watches, and broken jewelry. Being an avid metal detector, he pointed in the direction of a small glass case, covered by so many random ordinary things that it had gone unnoticed. I uncovered it and carefully went through its contents piece by piece. I ended up with a handful of treasures and went to the register and asked, “How much for all of this?” He replied that I held in my hand the results of approximately 1200 hours of metal detecting and after a bit of haggling, we settled on a price.

Some of the pieces will require a bit of studying and puzzling to find out what they need to turn into. This is what became of two of the lovely bits of treasure. What is the secret of the keyhole? Did it belong to a chest full of love letters, a door to a room, a simple box for mundane things? The story is yours to imagine.